Just A Couple Of Kids
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Mike was only thirteen. But he was pretty sure he was in love. Mileven. Oneshot.


_These two are just bloody adorable. The title of the song comes from_ Couple of Kids _by Maggie Lindemann. It suits them :)_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the character or the title._

It was weird, really, how Mike Wheeler and his friends were only fifteen years old, but they had seen more in their short lives than people who lived into their hundreds.

And they had survived.

And they had come out stronger.

Maybe not all of them, Mike had to admit, because his parents fought a whole lot more than they ever did when he was younger. They had such differing ideas on how to raise himself and his big sister, his father reasoning that they deserved independence, that they had proven that they could look after themselves. Their mother, on the other hand, pretty much wanted to wrap them in bubble wrap and never let them leave the house.

Nancy Wheeler wasn't having a bar of it, and she disappeared with Jonathon Byers and within the past month or so, Steve Harrington, on a reasonably regular basis, sometimes for a full weekend.

Mike knew where they went, there was a shed down the back of Jim Hopper's house in the woods, and Hopper didn't mind them camping out there. He wouldn't tell his parents, though, because sometimes Nancy would take him with her and Jonathon would bring his little brother, and they would get shakes and fries and then go to Hoppers and meet with Jane 'Eleven' Hopper and watch TV. Hopper would roll his eyes when he would see them all piled on top of each other on the couch, but he wouldn't say anything. He would let El make her way through the pack of Eggo's and he wouldn't grumble too loudly when Jonathan and Mike spilled chips over the couch and got them on the floor.

Other than his parents, Joyce Byers was also having a hard time, dealing with the death of Bob Newby. But her boys were helping her through it, and she loved having all of the kids around at her place which included Steve, strangely enough. There was some tension between Jonathon, Nancy and Steve, which Mike and his friends didn't totally understand, but they seemed to be making it work, which was awesome, because it turned out that Steve wasn't a total douche bag—he was actually pretty cool. And he was the man at ping pong, spending hours playing with the boys, El and Maxine Mayfield.

But the rest of them; they were doing good.

Nancy was happy with Jonathon, and Jonathon actually smiled.

Steve wasn't as school with them anymore, he was at community college, and he was spending a lot of time with Jonathan and Nancy, going down to the shed out the back of Hoppers place a lot with them.

Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair had gotten over the tiny bump in the road that Max had presented.

Max's brother didn't annoy them as much anymore, and in turn, she didn't annoy Mike as much as she had when she had first popped up in his life.

Will was better; he didn't have as many episodes anymore. There were still nightmares, like all of them had, but they weren't anywhere near as bad as they used to be.

And then there was El.

El, who had saved their lives so many times and the only thing she wanted in return was a family and Eggos.

El, who was beautifully naive to the good things in life and yet painful aware of just how horrible the world could be.

El, who Mike knew he loved, even though he knew that if he told anyone, they would say that he was too young to understand that. Mike knew that love could be weird and messy and complicated, because he remembered the way that his parents looked at each other just a few years ago, and then saw how they they looked at each other now. And then he also saw the way that Jonathan and Nancy and Steve all acted around each other, and that didn't make sense to him, because there were three of them, rather than two, but he just knew that was love.

He didn't tell El, because he didn't want to scare or confuse her.

He didn't tell El, because he didn't want El to think that he was saying it because he wanted something from her.

"Mike?" El's voice was soft and questioning as he she spoke his name. Mike blinked and looked at her. They were all at the Byers house today, but right now, they were alone in the lounge. Joyce was at work, and Jonathan, Steve and Nancy had left to go and get pizza. Max's mum had rung at said that she needed to come home, so Lucas was walking her to the end of the long driveway to wait for her brother to come and pick her up. Dustin was in the kitchen, rummaging for food, even though dinner was on the way. Will was exhausted, because the boys had stayed over the night before playing Dungeons & Dragons, and he had fallen asleep on the couch a while ago, and Jonathan had carried him to his bedroom.

So that left Mike and El.

"Mike?" El repeated again, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "Are you okay?"

"I'm great," Mike replied with a smile. El didn't look as though she believed him, tipping her head to the side so that her curly hair bounced slightly. It was getting even longer, nearly past her shoulders now, and sometimes when Mike was feeling especially brave, he would touch the soft strands and feel them under his fingertips.

It felt nice.

"Friends don't lie," she reminded him softly and shuffled closer to him on the couch. Their knees were a few inches apart, and El reached out with one hand and rested it on Mike's. He really liked that—holding her hand. They did that more than kissing, and Mike liked that, because there was a connection between them, but without the scary build up that Mike felt every time they kissed.

"There's...There's something that I feel but—but it's not the right time to say it," Mike managed to get out. El still looked confused, and Mike didn't blame her, because _he_ was definitely confused. "I like you, El," Mike tried again, and that felt better coming out. "I _really_ like you." El's face relaxed into a wide smile, and she leaned forward and their lips came together briefly.

That felt _really_ nice.

El didn't often initiate the kiss, and it always made Mike's stomach twist up in knots and his face really weird when she did.

When she leaned back, her cheeks were a little red, and she was so pretty it made Mike's nose scrunch up. Without him really thinking about it, he lifted up his hand and two of his fingers brushed over one of her cheeks, his thumb gently touching the corner of her lips. El bit down on her lower lip and he felt the breath she let out through her nose whisper over his fingers.

"I really like you too," she replied softly, and that was enough for them.

That was enough for now.

They were only kids, and even if they had been been through events which had the potential to be world ending, they still had time before they had to deal with the whole 'love' thing and whatever else that entailed.

Mike and El were still curled up down one end of the couch when Steve, Jonathan and Nancy got back, their fingers tangled together and quietly watching TV, and Nancy smile was wide as she spotted her little brother.

"Couple of kids in love, huh?" Steve murmured to Nancy when he walked past the doorway and saw the two. Nancy just smiled wider and nodded.

 _Let me know what you think :)_


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